By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Friday landed in Alaska for the highly anticipated summit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, said that his goal is to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table and “save a lot of lives”.
He was speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump was asked about some of the conditions Russian President Putin had set last year to end the war.
On the question of the possibility of territorial swap, Trump said he would leave that decision to Ukraine.
“They’ll be discussed, but I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision… I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I’m here to get them at a table,” Trump said.
Ukraine has said that it will not agree to ceding its territories to Russian and will never recognize Russian occupation of its land.
Trump also left open the possibility of Ukraine joining a security arrangement, stated there is a possibility of that but not in the form of NATO.
“Not in the form of NATO because there are certain things that aren’t going to happen but along with Europe, there’s a possibility of that,” he said.
Trump asserted that he is meeting Putin to save lives.
“I’m not doing this for my health. I don’t need it. I’d like to focus on our country but I’m doing this to save a lot of lives,” he stated.
Russia reiterated that its stance on ending the war in Ukraine has not changed.
Putin had set out his conditions to end the war withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and abandonment of Ukraine’s NATO ambitions.
Ukraine has said that it will not agree to ceding its territories to Russia and will never recognize Russian occupation of its land.
“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky said hours after Trump announced his summit with Putin.
Their conflicting stands leave the outcome of the Trump-Putin summit unpredictable, with the US president already stated that the there is 25 per cent chances their talks will fail.
